Embodiments disclosed herein relate to gas turbine engines and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus to remove and/or install combustion liners.
Gas turbine engines typically include a combustor having a combustion liner defining a combustion chamber. Within the combustion chamber, a mixture of compressed air and fuel is combusted to produce hot combustion gases. The combustion gases may flow through the combustion chamber to one or more turbine stages to generate power for driving a load and/or a compressor. Typically, the combustion process heats the combustion liner due to the hot combustion gases.
Combustion liners are routinely removed and installed during gas turbine maintenance activity. Some known removal tooling, on the most part, can be awkward but slowly helps remove combustion liners without significant damage. The combustion liner stops require circumferential alignment within each combustion chamber, typically between the male combustion liner stops and the female combustion liner stops. Hula seals can require several hundred pounds of axial installation force, which is often applied with a manually operated hammer or a series of mechanical fasteners. Currently, a technician must reach into the combustion liner to manually align the liner with the hula seal. In some cases, most of the technician will be inside the liner. This may be an undesirable confined space situation, as the working space is limited and egress is difficult. However, without proper liner stop alignment, if the liner is rotated while the hula seal is under load, then torsional loading of the hula seal can damage the seal leafs or seal coating.